Mobile and other communication devices are increasingly popular and find use in both personal and business-related contexts. User's often choose among various communication devices, especially wireless communication devices, using convenience of use as a criterion.
Current communication devices typically offer a variety of forms of data communication including email, short message service (SMS), instant messaging (IM), etc. A user of a device adapted for IM, for example, may desire to carry on concurrent but separate conversations with two or more IM contacts (i.e. users of other IM configured devices). Switching between concurrent messaging sessions (i.e. conversations) is often cumbersome. In the case of IM, a user typically must quit an IM application interface for a current conversation, go to a contacts screen, locate the other conversation and open an interface for that other conversation to be able to respond to a new message, etc. In some environments, a user's experience is even more cumbersome if a particular conversation was opened from the context of another (i.e. an outer) application other than the IM application. An outer application such as a message list application providing a unified view of message activity on a device may be used as an initial interface to launch the IM application. When doing so, to switch to another conversation, the user may have to quit current conversation within the IM application and possibly quit the outer application (i.e. message list), re-open the IM application, find the desired conversation in a contacts screen and then open the desired conversation. A problem with such a cumbersome sequence of interactions is that the user is distracted from the main task at hand, namely, the conversation. Conversations may take longer to complete and a user may become dissatisfied with the device.
A solution to one or more of these problems and needs is therefore desired.